Edmund Burke

After the French Revolution, a number of philosophers came to believe that the West was being propelled toward a deep moral crisis, a view that prevailed for some time and that was based on a perception of diminishing belief in truth. This can be seen in the writings of Edmund Burke and John Stuart Mill.

Edmund Burke was born in the eighteenth century in England. He was a statesman and a political thinker, and he was also involved in a dispute over the powers of the crown. Burke was closely involved in the constitutional controversy over George III's reign. The King was seeking to assert a more active role for the crown, which had lost influence in earlier times, and to do so without infringing on the limitations of the royal prerogative set by the revolution settlement. Burke argued that George's actions were against the spirit of the constitution, though not its letter. He offered a new justification of party, defined as a body of men united on public principle and able to act as a constitutional link between king and Parliament. Burke continued to work for the curtailment of the powers of the crown. He was present as a movement began for parliamentary reform as well, including wider political participation in society, and he supported the latter to a degree, provided that there was evidence of rationality, restraint of aggressive partiality, and dedication to the common good.

Burke later fought against the Revolution in France and demanded war against the new

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this assumption, as a case where the people's passions bubbled over and destroyed the power that was supposed to keep them in check. He says that because of the revolution, the normal concepts of truth and right have been changed: All the pleasing illusions which made power gentle and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason (Burke 67). Burke found a solution in the social contract, and he extolled the virtues of a constitution as an agreement not to be broken, an agreement between the people and their governing body. However, he saw manners as more important than laws, which is why the British constitution, an unwritten constitution, was preferable. John Stuart Mill also emphasizes a form of the social contract. He considered the French Revolution an example of breaking that contract. He sees the French Revolution as a temporary aberration, stating that it belongs to "a sudden and convulsive outbreak against monarchical and aristocratic despotism" (Mill 7). Indeed, Mill sees the revolution as an unfortunate

Category: Philosophy - E